autoglass repair? What's the catch?

Altarf

I see d4v1d sm4rt has left the building.

Quentin

NopainNogain wrote: »

Yep, that's what happened to me! (See post #9). Premium WAS increased :mad:

Oh, and there was no opportunity to tell online insurance companies it was a repair, not a replacement. Should have been obvious from the cost, but premium still went up!

That's part of the catch. It's still a claim, irrespective of whether it's a repair or a replacement. Both have to be paid for!

Jacey_jump

Had a very small chip in my windscreen and through my insurance was advised to use Autoglass! First appointment booked through mian booking office was rescheduled by local autoglass guy as time that was booked was actually inconvenient for him. Nevermind they agreed to come to my work to do it.
. He arrived at specified time which was great, told me it would be about 15 minutes to fix. He warned me that sometimes small cracks can actually get bigger and may need new windscreen. signed the form, left him for about 15-20 minutes and then retunred to my car. When I got back he said bad news, crack now bigger and I need a new windscreen at a cost of £75. THis annoyed me a little as the oringinal crack was so small and thought the idea of autoglass is that they repair on the spot...he then said your car wont start as I think the battery is flat!!! He told me he had turned the engine on as had to use some sort of equipment (??????? what) and this must have flattened the battery!! He did attempt to help me by jump startting the car, but the elecric imobiliser then would not allow me to actually drive the car and go beyond a 1000 revs...at this point there was nothing more he could do so I told him to leave. I was so angry...I then had to call out my breakdown people to get the car moving and I have to go to a specific garage to get the eletrics looked at as there is still a warning light that has not gone away since. I found the whole experiece really stressful and is going to cost me a lot more money than the £10 exceess I had to pay for to get a small chip in the screen repiared plus spent most of my afternoon trying to sort all the issues out!I have cancelled my appointment to have a new screen as my breakdown guy said it was small enough not to be a problem at the moment and its not in the area of the screen that would fail an MOT!! On the Autoglass website there is a small presentation on how they fix the problem and at no point would he have needed to turn my car engine on! So I really have no idea how he flattended by battery!!!!! I have called Autoglass to complain, was told someone would call me from the local branch and so far NO call! I asked the guy on the phone is there is any reason why he should have turned on my engine and he said no. Terrible service and wont be using them again!!!!!!:mad:

Surbybird

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

We've got a chip on our windowscreen and I heard that autoglass do repairs for free as an insurance claim but it doesn't affect your no claims and there's no excess to pay...
Sounds too good to be true so what's the catch?

I've had about a dozen chips repaired by Autoglass over several cars and I've had one windscreen replacement, which Autoglass paid for.

The replacement windscreen came about after they did a repair on a large stone chip which then failed (the resin fell out!) and as they can't repair a previous repair apparently, they had to replace the screen at their expense as they guarantee their work.

I considered that a good result though, as I'd called them out to repair a cluster of chips in my line of vision (I drive a lot in Surrey where they just lay loose chippings when they resurface the roads!) and because one of those chips was the previously repaired one they had to give me a new windscreen.

However, no claim for me so no penalty at insurance renewal time.

K

olly300

Jacey_jump wrote: »

Had a very small chip in my windscreen and through my insurance was advised to use Autoglass! First appointment booked through mian booking office was rescheduled by local autoglass guy as time that was booked was actually inconvenient for him. Nevermind they agreed to come to my work to do it.
. He arrived at specified time which was great, told me it would be about 15 minutes to fix. He warned me that sometimes small cracks can actually get bigger and may need new windscreen. signed the form, left him for about 15-20 minutes and then retunred to my car. When I got back he said bad news, crack now bigger and I need a new windscreen at a cost of £75. THis annoyed me a little as the oringinal crack was so small and thought the idea of autoglass is that they repair on the spot...

Why are you angry? You were just unlucky.

He warned you about the fact that the crack could get bigger and it did.

Jacey_jump wrote: »

he then said your car wont start as I think the battery is flat!!! He told me he had turned the engine on as had to use some sort of equipment (??????? what) and this must have flattened the battery!!

Again you are blaming someone for you having a old/flat battery or electrical problems.

They use the cigarette lighter to use a drier to dry the resin. How do you think the resin dries so quickly?

Jacey_jump wrote: »

He did attempt to help me by jump startting the car, but the elecric imobiliser then would not allow me to actually drive the car and go beyond a 1000 revs...at this point there was nothing more he could do so I told him to leave. I was so angry...

You are getting angry about something that is no-ones fault. You need to do some anger management.

Some cars have bad electrics my old car did so the battery would get flat for no reason.

Lum

CHR15 wrote: »

His work doesn't seem particularly cheap at £60-£120 for a repair (not far off the price of a new windscreen).

Depends on the car. £1000 and a 3 month lead time for a new screen for mine, plus fitting. Yes I'm always sure to have windscreen cover on my insurance.

Anyway, surely the biggest catch of the "repair" is that you still have an annoying chip in your windscreen, that is still pretty much certain to catch the sunlight and reflect it directly into your eyes on a long straight motorway.

Quentin

Surbybird wrote: »

However, no claim for me so no penalty at insurance renewal time.

Although you don't lose NCD when claiming for repairs or replacement windscreens they do have the potential to alter your premiums:

1) All claims (both repairs and replacements) have to be declared should you want to move to a different insurer, and can lead to a premium loading.

2) Some insurers (eg Swiftcover) won't give you any NCD for the year in which you have claimed on your glass section. This would have some effect on the renewal premium were you not already on max no claims discount prior to the claim.

Rossy.

Lum wrote: »

Depends on the car. £1000 and a 3 month lead time for a new screen for mine, plus fitting. Yes I'm always sure to have windscreen cover on my insurance.

Anyway, surely the biggest catch of the "repair" is that you still have an annoying chip in your windscreen, that is still pretty much certain to catch the sunlight and reflect it directly into your eyes on a long straight motorway.

A 3 month wait for a windscreen, plus it costs a grand?

What car do you drive ?

Or am i reading this wrong

Surbybird

Quentin wrote: »

Although you don't lose NCD when claiming for repairs or replacement windscreens they do have the potential to alter your premiums:

1) All claims (both repairs and replacements) have to be declared should you want to move to a different insurer, and can lead to a premium loading.

2) Some insurers (eg Swiftcover) won't give you any NCD for the year in which you have claimed on your glass section. This would have some effect on the renewal premium were you not already on max no claims discount prior to the claim.

I didn't make a claim though. The windscreen was replaced by Autoglass without the involvement of my insurers as it was warranty work.

K

Quentin

Surbybird wrote: »

I didn't make a claim though. The windscreen was replaced by Autoglass without the involvement of my insurers as it was warranty work.

So called "free" repairs are claims and still have to be declared.

Surbybird wrote: »

I've had about a dozen chips repaired by Autoglass over several cars and I've had one windscreen replacement, which Autoglass paid for.